Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ISMAEL TYKES WINNING BOW
New Barnsley boss off to perfect start
VALERIEN ISMAEL made “a perfect start” as Barnsley head coach after his team claimed their first win of the season against 10-man QPR.
Ismael succeeded Gerhard Struber last Friday and made a memorable dugout debut as Barnsley leapfrogged QPR in the table in a game that turned on a red card and penalty midway through the first half.
The visitors had been on top when Cauley Woodrow went through on goal only for Rob Dickie to bring him down.
Dickie was given a straight red and Woodrow stepped up to send keeper Seny Dieng the wrong way with an emphatic finish.
The Tykes had squandered the lead in their previous three games but there was no sign of a repeat as Conor Chaplin made it two with a precise, low shot at the near post.
A Yohann Barbet own goal summed up QPR’S night. He stuck out a left foot to divert the ball past his own keeper following Woodrow’s heavy touch.
The damage could have been even greater had Dieng not twice denied Patrick Schmidt as well as Alex Mowatt, Elliot Simoes and Chaplin.
Ismael said: “It is always very good if you can start with a win to give you confidence for the work with the team.
“The players believe more in your words when you win.”
The Frenchman added: “We put the pressure on all the time: this is what I want to see.
“For me it doesn’t matter if you win three zero, four zero, I want to see from the first until the last minute all the time keep going and the team did this very well.”
It is four games without a goal for QPR and how they could have done with a player like the onlooking Les Ferdinand, now the director of football.
They have not won since the opening day of the season and boss Mark Warburton – who had no argument with the red card – said it was the pivotal moment of the game.
He said: “It reads 3-0. Obviously frustrated and disappointed but it changed on the one big red-card incident.
“I thought we were very good for the first 25 minutes or so, I thought we started really well, we were camped in their half. You have to score in those periods and take advantage of that dominance. If you don’t do it the game is on a knife-edge still.”